


Ice melting off a Missing Link

by silpexx



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AU, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Gen, Ghost! Xion, Introjection subversion, KH2 - Freeform, KH2 Retell, Kind of a pilot for a bigger thing, Kinda, Minor Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Soriku in chapter 2 LOL no matter how gen I try to stay Sora's thoughts always go to gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21603169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silpexx/pseuds/silpexx
Summary: All of them feel thoughts and realizations different from their feelings or capabilities, but they can’t grasp the source. Are their minds making a will of their own to get through this harsh reality?OrWhat if Xion’s impact could be felt through the events of KH2? And this poor girl had more foreshadowing to her return than what she got? Because the mind may forget, but the heart can’t.--Updates as author progresses through KH2
Relationships: Axel & Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Axel & Roxas & Xion (Kingdom Hearts), Donald Duck & Goofy & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), One secret one if you squint
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	1. First chain

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is a fun lil idea I had since I got my hands on the story so far set. 358/2 Days was my first game and Xion made baby me gay, so I was really disappointed when it seemed, KH2 seemed to ignore Xion’s existence. I get why but, KH3 didn’t solve the sting with the buildup to WHO Xion is, why she was gone, and why she was in Sora’s heart. 
> 
> As I play KH2, I’ll think of ideas and snippets and make outlines to make into chapters! I have some responsabilities though so, I don’t promise a schedule. Maybe it’ll be 5 months after the next update, haha. 
> 
> Anyways I hope you like it despite that!

# \----------------------- ❦ X

In the first day he didn’t know was, a boy called Roxas walks on the stone of his normal life: stores that love him as a customer, rivals with upturning chins, some abandoned boxes in a falling house in legal limbo than no one but four teenagers touched. Today’s path, though, tangents to the mansion in the woods where no one has been to. The --- are gone, and the second oddity of the day are the white flashes he’s following to the rusted gates keeping the Mansion locked away. In cue with his arrival, the white flashes surrounded him to reveal they have mouths and limbs.

Talking about locks.

His hand burns, but the sting is kind, and next moment a huge, key in his hand?

_Don’t question it now, just defend yourself!_

“Wait, I’m going to die?!”

A flash blinds him, and the thieves are gone. The photographs lay there like nothing else happened. Roxas takes them to the Usual Spot and discusses them with his friends.

Nothing about the voice comes to mind.

# \-------------------- ❦ ♛ X

Roxas’ dreams are wild, but that makes them kind of nice: not everyone can boast of seeing a whole hero’s journey straight out of a shounen… or at least that’s what he can tell. Dreams fog in your mind so easily you can’t keep all of the details, nor see the depths in the cracks of what seems to be another carbon copy of, the rival role or something. Literature wasn’t Roxas’ favorite subject, but it wasn’t hard to memorize. The mention of the keyblade sticks though: perfect descriptor for the weapon from yesterday. Should he be ready if, it appears again? It’s strange, but something about holding it felt very familiar. 

So Roxas grabs a stick and swings it around, giggles bubbling up even though he’s totally serious. With a frown he tells himself to “Stop it, I’m not laughing!” And miscalculates and loses the stick to his behind, hitting a hooded stranger’s head. His mouth contorts in a tight line, but the man just ignores him and leaves when he tries to apologize.

_Jerk?_ crosses his mind, but Roxas huffs. “That’d be rude to say. Maybe he was in a hurry.”

Dirty blond bangs bounce in a hurry too. He’s late for the secret place meeting with his friends, and they’ve set up a plan: work their asses off for munny to get to the beach! Roxas covers his own mouth then stares at it. There is nothing to worry about. It’ll be just Hayner, Pence and Olette and him having a unique vacation day! _It’s what they deserve_ before dragging back into grinding monotone schedules. Roxas’ right eye stings, and he slaps the hand that tries to scratch it. _This trip is important, and we’re going to get it._

Except he doesn’t, because a certain man pushes him and pickpockets all the acquired munny away. Great, Olette had to hand it all into his bag when he apparently pissed the wrong guy. He tells the guys they should search for the thief but they all deny the presence of someone when Roxas fell. What do they mean he’s seeing things?

┈ _I saw it too!┈_ ricochets in his brain, but doesn’t change what the others thing. At least they’re calm enough to let him go to the top of the clocktower with them, even if he’s the reason the day’s work is wasted. Roxas knows he’s overthinking: everyone got one bar of sea salt ice cream, but his hovers over his knees.

The first time he tasted sea salt ice cream was many like before, but not the times he was thinking about.

He hears a voice say _┈Your ice cream is melting,┈_ but he takes it as his mental voice even if it doesn’t sound like him: just a faint whisper, like those times you tell yourself to do things. He chews his ice cream and nodded. Current strange events can’t take the little joys away. _In fact, it’s best you taste this moment before it melts away._

The word choice makes him stop. Hayner notices and knocks his shoulder gently. Roxas justs nods and asks for Olette’s opinion on their frustrated beach affair. The photo and word thiefs won’t return at this moment to sour their day, but they might later. And they all will be safe! No idea why he stressed that thought, but it helps his raising heartbeat.

There is one detail still tensing him though. When he spoke of the man, he left out one detail: the stranger lifted Roxas by the collar and demanded:

"Can you feel Sora?”

Roxas feels his brain and his heart go solemnly silent.

In some corner of his heart, he doesn’t hear:

_┈For your own good, I hope you can┈_

# \---------------- ❦ ♆ X

This time Roxas does notice the foreign presence before him: in his dream, a blonde girl stands before a lotus and smiles at him quizically. He thinks he sees her when he wakes up but sees no one when he snaps his vision. _I don’t think she’s unfriendly._ But then, what was up with that introduction?

_I wish I knew either._

He specially wishes his voice had an answer for the moment time freezes, the girl actually appears, says Hi and vanishes.

_She is just, awkward with people._

“And is that why she stopped time?”

_Maybe she couldn’t let herself be seen, specially if she comes from a dream._ Roxas vows his head quizzically. It’s not like someone will hurt her even if she’s not, a normal human.

He keeps an eye out for more weird details and seems to see her at the entrance to the forest, but nothing is there once he arrives. Priorities tell him to get to the Plaza to greet his rivals for the Struggle Sport tournament.

“Oh right, I forgot to mention it: it’s a competition at twilight town that gives you boasting rights for a year. Hayner is gonna get in it too!” he gestures with his hands, as if his voice needed to hear it from him and not just, scour it from his mind like every internal voice every normal person has. The douchiest rival, Seifer, asks him who the fuck he’s talking to when white entities slide around them.

Nice, the photo thieves are back.

He tries uselessly to defend his rivals with the struggle bat, but when he gets close to protect them, he sees they’re frozen. The blonde girl suddenly yells from a rooftop to use the Keyblade.

┈ _With what memories? ┈_

The voice stammers and panics, so Roxas shakes too. One thief lifts a, leg? Arm? And both he and the voice scream in unison.

He scrunches his eyes and opens them to see… a nothingness of darkness except for stained glass at his feet.

_Oh_

With that, the voice suddenly starts to, command him to make choices between a sword, a shield and a rod. He advances almost in auto pilot, his senses dulled by the storm of nonsense dunked on him today. Only when he beats his first dusk does he yell to the air. “Why are you suddenly talking like a distant guider?!”

_┈I’m just trying to make the best of a dire situation, okay? This place is also telling me to help you like this┈_

“Man, that sounds even more terrifying.”

_┈Not really. I’m more worried on your low HP points. If you want, you can back track and see more of those white enemies floating around again, and you can defeat them over and over by crossing the same door many times┈_

“That is morbid… I’ll roll with that.”

The tip works. Eventually he gets to what seems to be the final door. There the voice hitches. _Are you sure you’re ready? I feel a really, strong presence beyond this. I think you can grind further._

Roxas waves his hand in the air. “I’ll be fine, thanks for worrying about me… me.”

If the voice had a face, its lip corners would be drawn to the corners, but then smile. He crosses and somehow survives the massive boss, this dream turning into a way too real nightmare. He resists until the beast finally falls, but he falls to an empty room where the blonde girl is back… again? And asking about a true name. Before the can try, pickpockets come by and tells her to stop. Oh sweet, both weirdos have omnipotence on their existence and tell shit that doesn’t make sense. Are they gods fighting for control of the playground? He is busy squinting at them when pickpocket says “He doesn’t need to know the truth.”

“ _┈WHAT?! Why can’t you tell him? Why are you suddenly being such a jackass?!┈”_

Both look at Roxas in shock. He drops his gaze and shakes his head. The voice reacted and he, spoke. He opens his mouth just to see the strangers are gone, and now he’s back to existing in regular Twilight Town space.

His voice acted strange, but it was right: he’s ok and back in the real world. Does it mean all the experience was fake? But he was encouraged to be careful and prepare and, the voice sounded really worried. She didn’t say anything about the blonde this time, like why is this failing to say apparently important things.

_┈Well, what do YOU think is going on? ┈_

“You’re expecting me to have the ability to tell? i can’t make sense of all of this!”

_┈Imagine how hard it would be for anyone to tell you, then. Especially when… you’ve got the usual spot to come back to┈_

“Right!” Roxas exclaims, and dashes to find some conflict specially with his friend Hayner. He remembers the promise to win the struggle and split. When Hayner leaves, he thinks to make good of it and fulfill that promise.

_┈How nice to fight for something so normal even if it’s ephemeral┈_

Roxas blinks in his way back home. “It’s not… temporal. I’ll fix thing and get Hayner’s attention back.”

The voice says no more. Like this it can’t have a will of its own. Wills can have jealousy.

# \-------------------- ❦ 回 X

No blonde girl appeared in his dreams. The voice didn’t encourage him awake either. It was rather peaceful, content to watch and see the day’s fares be normal and consist of nothing more. It only sparked _┈Behind you!┈_ when he was clearing an alley from an infestation of bees, but that was it. The voice seemed to be just his sense of self preservation and safety.

Roxas wished, though, to hear it more.

“Do you think we should save up more money?”

Silence, but not an unkind one.

“Maybe you can cheer at the tournament. Just for your own fun, you know.”

The voice isn’t something others had, and so even here, in the arena where Roxas must fight Hayner first, it stays silent, not disrupting his everyday life. Later, when he sees the next opponent uncharacteristically beat down his own fellow friend, he decides it’s not fair for the voice to think of itself like that.

Roxas walks in the ring, legs firmly still as his opponent, Vivi, spins in the air toward him.

_┈Dodge! Dodge! What the fuck R- ┈_

With a gasp he jumps backwards and hits as Vivi barely recovers from landing inertia. The crowd goes wild. “Just like that! Don’t hold back, go wild!”

As Roxas picks points from his opponent’s strike, a chuckle grows into laughter like a fountain pouring up in the morning sunlight. Roxas’ feet feel light, reaching corner to corner like air resistance didn’t exist. His opponent tries to counterpoint by dropping their shoulders, then swing a quick thrust Roxas barely backsteps out of. “ _Dropped guard. What a dirty play!_ ” Roxas chuckles before scoring another hit. There’s 25 points more to squeeze out of the opponent, _but there’s literally 3 seconds left for this round to be over. Let’s just dodge and win. You got this in the badge! I know you love to stretch your neck but this fine, it’s fine._

Roxas rubs his neck rather sheepishly when time stops again. The white thieves show up, and Roxas sighs as he feels the keyblade come back into his hand. He readies to get this over with when a voice tenses his shoulders. Fire crackles and a tall man appears, claiming him a title and a role that he apparently escaped. But he’s just a normal voice. “What does that mean?” He whispers to the voice, but it seems to be as unnerved as him and a little, shaken? Of all weirdness this week, this is going to be a bad one.

“You’re coming with me, conscious or not. Then you’ll hear the story.”

Is this guy for real? No way in hell he’s letting that happen. He has friends to split a prize with! As Roxas throws a jab on his own, the voice finally says one thing:

_┈Kick his ass┈_

The fight doesn’t take long, though Roxas’ dodges don’t work the first time. The voice really helps get on his feet before his health plummets. When he seems to win, another strange man appears, demanding him to obey some sort of truth. The firey guy, right, his name is Axel, keeps insisting to the point both weirdos yell Roxas name like bullets plunging over and over in his skull. His knees go weak under pressure. Why is this breaking him apart?

_Stop_

_Stop_

_" ┈LEAVE US ALONE┈ "_

Both Axel and the stranger drop their jaws in shock before vanishing, letting time flow again. Though shaken by their words, continuing the struggle competition and beating it is a piece of cake after dodging literal fire. _Please remember and savor the prize._ Right. He’s won and has a great trophy to split now, which he chooses to do at the Clocktower. Here is where all friendship culminates, and here is where he takes out the jewels adorning the prize and gives them away, watching them shine under the rays of twilight.

It seems Roxas is gonna set like dusk too, because he goddamn leans and falls off the clocktower. He reaches out with his hand and time slows down. He feels a connection to, somewhere suddenly aware of a redhead walking back home. It’s like catching a radio wave, but with visuals, and the girl is aware of it too?

When she asks who’s there, Roxas feels the voice bubble up his throat and trip his speech before he can cough and try again. Before the exchange can end, he feels his heart pump with an emergency that’s not his own.

“ _Are you really ok? Have you made peaces with Selphie?_ ”

“Uh, yeah? How do you know we had trouble?”

The voice retreats back to choke sobs, leaving Roxas lost on what to do as he presses hands on his chest.

“ _Do you, remember who you lost?”_

The redhead blinks and stammers, but another voice wins her attention.

“Here is a clue: starts with an S!”

As he blacks out, Roxas can feel a part of the voice wither. Then, laugh with acceptance.

# \---------------------❦ ♆ X

He seems to wake up right when his skull is about to be smashed upon fatal impact. Isn’t that strange? But the voice’s reaction is stranger too. It talked like it had personal business with that vision of the redhead. And who was that other voice? It definitely isn’t his.

_┈Roxas, you’re late to get to the station┈_

“But, what about yesterday?”

┈ _Yesterday is gone. What if any of those strangers appear again? You can’t seek them out if they won’t appear, uselessly wasting time you could be investing in your friends┈_

Roxas backtracks like he’s been slapped, but curls his fists and looks around at, shit how to even address it? There’s a seashell on the corner of a print Pence gifted him. That will do. “But you’re with me, so what is your trouble is also my trouble. You’ve been encouraging me all this time so please; tell me the problem and I’ll fix it!”

┈ _It, helps me to see you happy, so please go┈_

He opens his mouth to protest but he hears a shout from his window. He leans on it to see Olette waving her arms. He is that late then. Still, the knot in his stomach refuses to unwind as he follows her to the station and gets on the train. Everyone extracts the prize jewels from their pockets, but he doesn’t find his in his pouch. Great, now even that is lost! Not that it changes their hangout in anyway: jewel or not, there are Seven wonders in Twilight Town for him to spot. He gets to each one and watches really wild phenomena, but almost instantly it seems to be explained as soon as he deals with it and Pence arrives. The voice seems to grow wary with each one. It only broke silence at the waterfall, where a shadow of himself appeared and fought him. It breathed

_┈This world is…┈_

__After he defeated the shadow and Pence arrived to debunk the myth, Roxas whispered: “The world is?”

While Roxas got back with the trio and demanded the last Wonder from Pence, the voice sighed. _Nevermind._

Roxas wants to get angry, but he senses the voice withdrawn with uncertainty. Maybe it’s not sure of what it thought, and didn’t want to disturb Roxas any further. Still, Roxas wishes it would, stop withdrawing itself. That is part of the reason he goes to the seventh wonder: the mansion. As expected, the voice was baffled. _┈You really think the girl of the rumor is the blondie?!┈_ “It makes sense! Everything weird going on must be connected because it’s all targeting me, so what says the rumors aren’t? She could use it as a way to get in contact with me, as she’s struggling to tell me things, as you said.” The voice has no time to gasp as Roxas looks at the Mansion’s window, and is mentally transported in a white room.

# →. ◔ ♆ ◔. ←

Naminé is so guilty of so many things. Collaborating with DiZ to keep Roxas trapped in a lie of a normal life was no better than the abuse she enabled of the Riku Replica. She haa no idea if he had escaped to live unperturbed somewhere, or met some sort of end. Even though she’s connected to him by acquaintance, she can’t follow their connection to him. Well, it may be because he’s a replica, not a nobody like Roxas who is in a real body to stand in the world and be present, though as she tells him, he wasn’t supposed to exist.

Neither was she.

Roxas’ eyes seem to get a little of her condolences, though he’s not told anything else. She is ready to cut their short time but a laugh plays bitterly. Before he vanishes away, Naminé can see his lips were sealed. That laugh was of mockery, as if they knew what Naminé was going to say and found it silly. Why? Wasn’t setting him to seek the truth the right choice?

But no one would want to be robbed of a normal life. She was the one who tried to construct a past where she existed, after all.

Maybe it’s not bad for them to get illusions and feelings as if they were people in the world.

# \-------------------❦ 回 ♆ X ♕

For the first time, Roxas dreams of his own face, twisted with stubbornness and, misery? Fighting a guy who questions why he has the keyblade. The way he tells him to shut up tells him he was sure of the weapon, even though his first reaction in front of, what was his name, Axel? Was to throw it away.

He has the feeling he's gonna get it back soon.

It is confirmed as soon as he gets to the secret spot and his hand passes through Olette's arm. His three friends chitter and chatter like he isn't there. ┈ _How funny, when you were physical the world treated you the exact same way, though your body was rock solid┈_ Maybe that's why he was fighting so much in his dream. And against, who?

Or for who?

Well, it seems it is time to admit this town was never truly his life, and there is a past life he has to find again. He walks out of the usual spot, and almost on cue, white thieves appear followed by the man. Axel.

He speaks of forced consequences, of higher orders of success or death. _He has chosen to stay in a prison that drags more innocents into it._

_┈Such a friend you are┈_

Roxas blurts out that he and Axel were friends, and the voice gasps like he’s an idiot. Axel suddenly speaks hopeful, though, like he’d just made paces with a friend he fought with long ago. He still checks Roxas’ memory banks and asks for the name of a, Superior.

The voice’s silence is deafening.

Before Axel can lash out again, he’s suddenly frozen. Roxas squints and looks all around the statue, whistling at the chakrams’ sharpness upon closer inspection. “Wow, I really got this guy mad.”

┈ _Yet he pretended to only give you explanations later┈_

“Asshole, right?”

Roxas giggles and goes back to the usual spot to retrieve a marker, leaving his “friend” Axel with a monocle and moustache. as he goes away laughing, he’s sure that was not his idea, but is glad to please anyways.

Laughs were good because the amount of, creatures in his path is making him growl constantly. Roxas didn’t think there’d be obstacles to break into the mansion and go find Naminé again. His arms seem to swing faster at the forest, but heavier when it’s time to open the mansion gates. The voice doesn’t have to speak to express its doubts on Roxas.

“It’s fine, no matter what happens, I got my own time!” and unlocks them open. Time to fix the town!

# ▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀

Turns out according to Naminé, his time was never his own.

It was all a lie. The friends he kept going back for, the beach: nothing awaits him but a void he is part of. -But you can’t let him return so empty, can you? Because of what I asked you to do-

“What are you talking about?” he seems to ask both, before Naminé glitches away and the strange man appears to bring the heeby jeebies back to Roxas’ spine. Naminé tries to come back with one promise to tell him everything clearly when they meet again with other faces.

_┈Meet again? Well, maybe you have a chance to be recognized, even if you go through the same resignation┈_

The voice seems to be gaining more individuality, but all it feels is bitterness and weakness. Roxas doesn’t like it, so he continues forward to the basement as the strange man said. Maybe if he finds his answers, he’ll hear the voice’s too! And it won’t be so sad anymore.

The computer he finds gives none, so he smashes it.

Some pods by the underground corridors just unnerve him. He leaves those alone.

At the next turn, fire crackles alerting him the Axel man is back. A memory replays back in his mind, and now he’s not just a man. He’s Axel! And he’s here because he misses him, doesn’t want him destroyed by the shadow of the Organization or a truth he’s not guilty off. Roxas has to blink his eyes under a foreign sting. A fountain of tears holds back from bubbling up at his stomach, and he has to physically hold his chest to stop it from overflowing. He breathes in and out, knowing going back won’t help it diminish.

┈ _Really?_ _You want to find the truth no matter what consequences this time?┈_

Roxas doesn’t know about a first time, but he nods. Axel tenses up, his weapons shaking. Roxas’ gaze draws up, but it’s not Axel he’s looking at. The boy smiles.

“There is no going back, it’s not my choice, but I’m not being forced into another either. “

_┈Then, borrow my strength again┈_

Oblivion appears in his hand.

# ► ۵ ☼ ۵ ◄

He got back some memories, so that’s why he’s double the rageful, faster in his reflexes, right? Axel knows his friend was the best, but never this sharp. He seemed to hang on his last threads the last days, though he doesn’t know why. What gave him the strength to best Saix and circle him with two goddamn keyblades?! It’s not fair!

With a sigh, Axel flings an assassin move: pass by his side, swing chakrams straight by his face. He snaps his torso to deflect the first and dodge away the later. Bold move! But why so familiar, and so effortless the first try? They were friends, sure, got along perfect, sure, got on some missions and saw the other’s fighting style, sure. But Axel suppressed any special aspects of the assassin to never startle the kid! He’s knocking his energy down and it’s frustrating. They were best friends! How can his heart not beckon him? What is keeping him so stubborn?

Stubborn like,

Axel grinds his teeth, raising the fire and becoming one with it. Roxas can’t see him through the flames, and yet, he seems to lift his head and dodge before the fire can even sizzle a warning.

throw him in air and try to target, but he slams axel down and performs a light attack. That is what tells Axel something is really wrong.

He can only do limits at low health. All nobodies have that limitation.

Standing up, he mimics being dizzy, baiting close hits in proximity of surrounding fire bursts. But his heart yells “Get back!” before his wrists flicker, and he backtracks with eyes wide as his. He remembers that same face when he blocked a hit from him… fighting with someone. Stopping a fight, but with who? Axel backtracks in uncertainty, beat Roxas takes to deliver the almost final blow. 

# ▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀

Axel finally sighs in defeat, and Roxas feels the voice at the back of his throat shrink even after unleashing so much fury. Why did it do so? Axel was just worried he will be destroyed, right? No wonder he was being so harsh if he truly cared about him in the past! Then he must see the guy after all this, and conciliate what parted their ways.

“Silly, just because you have a next life.”

Tears invade Roxas’ eyes as Axel vanishes out. He rubs them off. They don’t make sense. He can continue forward with his choice. Why is the voice drawing back in remorse? It doesn’t protest, so Roxas moves forward.

He finds the other stranger, and yells in protest of all insults of his person until he sees the flower. At the sight of it, he feels all his tension go away: some resignation and sad acceptance, everything around him dissipating into light that evolves him as he declares his summer vacation to be over. It diminishes into darkness and blues that shine on him from above, resembling of the stained glass he saw when he first got the Keyblade.

His body is suspended at distance. He reaches out with his hand, and soars to it with the gentleness of water. He gets close enough to brush the light with his fingers, and a soft gasp escapes him in sync with a warmth heartbeat. Will he be one with that sound?“

“I really won’t be experiencing the world again… no, I don’t want that.”

He draws his hand back terrified, now just feeling the warmth of, someone at his back? Then going away and leaving him cold and alone,

He turns around and gasps in shock, seeing the voice is not hiding with him anymore: a hooded figure from head to the torso hovers away, reaching for the glass but bowing her head, a smile humming along.

Her?

He flails his limb but stays fixed. He can’t go through this space. What’s holding him back?! The voice wasn’t his instinct all this time! it was, it was…

“Who… are you?”

One lone tear floats through space, and glimmers, drawing the girl’s gaze. Black and blue lights emerge from his heart and blind his vision. A current of missing holes and seashells and a complete sunset pours like a current, warm and nostalgic of summer. His mouth hangs dry and he’s pulled out of the vision by a hitch from the other. She didn’t want to be seen? He tries to reach her, but his body just floats fixed in place.

Before he can react, her form shines and becomes one with that of the stained glass.

“I’m sorry for everything, Roxas. This is not the re-encounter you hoped for.”

He loses all perception of the world.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

# ♕

The hero awakens.


	2. Second Chain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora through the Disney Worlds before arriving to TWTNW. Other characters’ pov will be here next chapter. The fact this fic is a pilot for an AU in the works is clearer this chapter. Let’s see if it the subtlety works.

**♕**

Waking up wasn’t remarkable. Nothing about his goals or progress had changed, except for a strange need to regain some abilities, and his jacket felt tight around his shoulders. Strange as it was, Sora just thumbed up a lip corner into a smile to encourage Donald and Goofy to keep going forward. There was no time to lose to find a way back in the darkness and find Riku. The Nobodies Yen Sid warned about would be just be a new rock in the road to throw over.

Except they didn’t feel like new enemies.

When men in black coats with perplexing words appeared in Hollow Bastion, he was more perplexed by how few they were.  _ ┈They used to be so many┈ _ but, Sora was never told their number of members. How could he be so sure?  Like every other important question, Sora brushed the thought off and continued his search for Riku in the worlds. 

He landed in the land of dragons (that is the most stupid sentence I’ve ever heard!” Said Donald), befriending Mulan and agreeing to help her disguise in an army’s camp. Her situation was delicate and she could use the help blending in. When they got there, he wasn’t surprised when a man pushed him when he called him out for cutting a line. He’d exchanged fists with others boys for pettier things all the time.

_ ┈Really? Why? I’ve never seen anyone act like this!┈ _

“Huh?”

Caught off guard, the cheater grabbed him by the nose and pulled before the general walked in. Sora rubbed his nose while figuring out why he doubted his own logic for a second. The guy hit first so he had to hit him back! Simple as that. Even Donald and Goofy joined the brawl.

Sora pulled up his friends and suffered general Shang’s reprimand, switching gears to stick to Mulan and help her train to get used to combat. She tires her best, though she trips on her own step at times. Sora never mocked other’s difficulties when trying new things (unlike SOMEONE) but he feels an urge to giggle. He always thought giggles were mean, yet this one feels charmed? With sympathy? His mouth corners crinkled for only a second. That kind of expression isn’t his at all. Well, that’s the second weird thought of the afternoon. It’s less weird than the general’s scoff at Mulan’s progress. He thinks of telling him to give her a second chance, but instead he steps in his space and tiptoed to stare him directly.

“ _ ┈Listen here. If you’re gonna expect people to master at the drop of a hat, no one is gonna be on your troops! Now assign her the next mission and be patient, okay?┈ _ “

The general’s eyebrow twitched, yet he only pushes Sora gently to gain back distance and assign the next mission. At the end Sora is tired, but oddly satisfied to see Mulan carry herself with more sturdyness. All through the mission he pointed out details on her sword holding, warned enemies behind her and took on her method to step lightly and evade faster. He’s sure she’d do fine on her own now.

Sora watched her wave and say she’ll be back before leaving. He sighs and restocks on potions, slowing when he sees Donald’s squint heavy on him.

“What? Didn’t you tell me to do this all the time?”

“It’s not that,” Goofy interjected. They looked over their shoulders before Donald continued speaking: “I’m only concerned you’re taking this mission so personally. Did anyone ever make you feel this way?”

Sora tilts his head. “Like what?”

Donald struggles with his words, working himself up until Goofy places a hand on his shoulders. He nods and continues. “What you said to General Shang, sounded like you were singled out and treated differently for not being at everyone’s level. That sounds kind of lonely.”

Sora furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head. “Everyone at the island was nice, and any little mistake in games was just for playful teasing, but we helped each other up.” He smiles, thinking of wooden swords. “Even if I wasn’t at the same level, we were all friends. It’s nothing like what you said, Goofy. Did I really sound like that?”

Both friends nod and Donald continues: “Your voice sounded like it was about to crack.”

Sora blinks in disbelief and reassures them again he’s alright, so they sigh and keep going when Mulan returns from the river. Before they set foot in camp, she taps Sora’s shoulder and coughs before speaking.

“Sora, I just wanted to take a second to thank you for being so attentive. I thought a young expert would be annoyed to tell an adult how to do what he’s good at, but you’ve been very patient.”

Sora crosses his arm behind his head. “It’s nothing! Anything for a friend!”

Mulan nods and walks ahead. Sora sports a satisfied smile.

“I feared Sora was crushing on Mulan or something like that. He’s only a kid!”

And then it falls down. He turns to Donald with a expression of disbelief that makes him apologize. Maybe he’s been acting as weird as he’s been feeling. He couldn’t explain why. None of the weird thoughts or impulses return after Mulan’s thanks, so he has no idea what to pinpoint down as the cause.

Mulan’s adventure eventually end, and the group hops on the gummiship to the next world. It turned out to be a castle with a bridge at the entrance. Sora’s stomach sunk with strange unease as they passed it to the courtyard. When he entered and heard a familiar roar, he perked up in recognition of his friend the Beast. This was his world and he was reformed safe and sound!

_ ┈And he was loving the lady, so why is he roaring with rage now?┈ _

Sora blinks and knocks his head as they walk in. Brain is really doing the weirdest of spins. Beast roared like that protecting Belle, that was all. He was probably fending off some heartless, so he should actually hurry to help! His pace quickened, only to find his weird intrusive thought to match reality somehow: Beast unceremoniously throws them away, and when they find Belle, she requests them to go after locked house servants. Is Sora developing an intuition for things going on? Maybe the sole fact Riku is lost makes that sense a necessity, even if it unnerves him. Something is so wrong about it. 

Said sense triggers across the central door in the main hall. He enters it wordlessly, whistling as he takes in the beauty of golden walls, marble pillars at a chandelier. Through this fog of beauty, his arm still manages to twist and block a heartless' knock, like he’s already expecting it. As he clears the room under Donald's complaints, he wonders why he expected something worse to show up. He surveys the room's amplitude: quite fitting for a major fight to be honest. This is probably where he'll defeat the last boss, as usual. He chuckles and stares at his keyblade, the room's colorful symphony reflecting on the metal. It's just gold and silver, simple and clean in look, and yet staying with him and unlocking many adventures. Eyes and punches followed him and tossed him across the worlds because he happened to hold this.

_ ┈My purpose, my ticket to a meaning┈ _

Sora frowns.  _ Hold your value over a weapon? That's stupid. It's because I'm strong with my friends and for my friends that the keyblade stayed with me _ .

"Sora? Are you alright?" Goofy goofs. Sora looks at him and then his arm, holding out Kingdom Key D in diagonal. He gives a laugh and continues on the mission, wondering why he hoped his thoughts to continue. Sora isn't the type to talk in his head even to work himself to make homework on time. There's a reason Kairi calls him lazy bum and Riku complained, but still built the whole raft and make Sora's choice of a name part of a contest. They fought over it, but he still considered it! 1

Speaking of Riku, he isn't in this world either. The trio manage to reunite the Beast with his servants and make him see clarity to reunite and ask Belle for apologies. Through the whole affair, the servants dragged on the tale of Beast's little curse problem. Sora personally understands why they'd hesitate to share something so delicate, yet a ghost of frustration followed him.  _ ┈How can Beast be helped if we don't know the whole story?┈ _

Sora sighs. These thoughts have no source at all. They're getting kind of annoying. Luckily it doesn't show in a little detour to Hollow Bastion nor his arrival to Hercules' world. He's aware he's in the underworld and his living soul endangers, yet he can't help detouring at the corridors of fogs when he sees a silhouette. Goofy's cries go ignored as he tails. Someone else could be stuck here! When he hits a dead spot, he sighs accepting it was just a funny shaped wisp.

Still, there was something about the short hairstyle of the figure. For no reason at all he imagined it might be Raven. Maybe Sora wants to meet new potential friends like usual? Few have black hair at Destiny Islands. 

After that incident, the underworld didn’t cause any impulses, until he met the Organization's assigned mischief maker. When he runs away, Sora falls on his knees and laughs hysterically. Donald and Goofy ask if he’s okay and Sora brushes them off. He just, sees clearly how this man clearly squeaks every time he had to do something, so seeing him him carry a real task made him bang the floor with tears. He doesn't explain this, but rather says:

"Did you look, at the top of his head? It's like a bush."

Donald and Goofy laugh despite their duty to tell Sora to not judge appearances. Nothing else remarkable happens until the adventure at Disney Castle, where Sora is thrilled to see the past of allies and foes and see a surprisingly ambitious side of Donald. Going to the past through the castle's magic was interesting too. What would he do if he returned to the day before the storm at the islands, or go back further to detect what Kairi meant when she said Riku had changed?

Probably nothing, because changing the past could throw off his present and future.

_ ┈and every stride you’ve made for your friends and yourself would’ve been worthless all along┈ _

Sora shivers like if cold water ran down his spine. He grabs Donald by the shoulders to the next mission, the cold chagrin of the thought weighing on his shoulders. His same sentiment, but disturbingly more stern. Is his cruising through the worlds roughing his edges? Well, he must admit every instance he didn’t find Riku his heart drops a little. 

He must be hurt, right? Sora knows he would come back to him if he knew where Sora was. That’s why Sora kept adventuring to the point of finding his way back to twilight town.

Sora knows where to find the three local kids, but his steps flutters to the forest’s entrance until Goofy called after him. He scratches his cheek with no idea why he walked there and takes off to the correct destination: the sandlot. There, he fights a new sort of nobodies that make his skin crawl. He’d never feared heavy blunt enemies before, not even stuttered to knock the lights out of Ansem when he transformed in a massive boat. Still, he finds his steps sharpened by of dread and reflexes reaching for a nobody’s weapon once a block knocks it out of its grip. His limbs move on their own, beating the nobodies mercilessly until the rage cloud in his mind fades and the weapon vanishes. He feels dizzy and a bit, out of himself. A corner of his mind tells him he’s just berserked. The rage is alien to his own, but replicating the process was preferable to being nervous and uneasy.

Once all nobodies are beat, their commander shows up. Sora has never seen blue hair before, yet his breath grows panicked at the sight of it. He shakes his head and stares him defiantly, trying to keep his breath steady to tell Donald they could follow the man, Saix, to the dark realm. When he implies Riku is in some form of danger, the crutch fades completely under Sora’s confusion, which is quickly interrupted by some teen handing him a prize and Pence’s arrival. The promise of information on Kairi sets his feet racing.

_ ┈I thought she was safe at Destiny Islands┈ _

His pace goes faster. Now that is WEIRD to think about. If she’s here, how did she cross the darkness barrier between worlds? And to make things worse, she was kidnapped by a red haired stranger before Sora could reach her. From Hayner and Olette’s description of the event, Sora observes the man responsible can parse through the darkness. So, did she negotiate with him a way through the worlds and the deal fell through? He hopes it just means she got dragged back to their world. And Riku… he probably tried to escape the darkness and-

He can’t even complete the thought. He locked away this flurry of thoughts and continues cruising the worlds with his friends. Somewhere there should be a way to darkness where his friends were stuck. He could only get them back by moving! 

But is that really how he approaches problem?

It’s a troubling change of character, but Sora welcomes it as a boost to his destructive speed. It drives him to eventually come back to Hollow Bastion and face swarms before meeting the leader of Organization XIII: Xemnas. He hammers the name in his mind as he demands information of his friends, and gets nothing but another hint King Mickey is not telling him something. They’re forced to keep going since the King is not present to confront, only to have a black coat approach them.

This one with fiery red hair. 

Sora feels his spirits soar.

_ ┈Axel!┈ _

Yet his words don’t lift him: the heartless floods in Hollow Bastion were a trap to make him release hearts for an artificial Kingdom Hearts the Organization plans to weaponize. Sora feels strangely, not shocked? Though he doesn’t want to aid the organization either. He’ll need to swing his keyblade at every word he searches, still.

Sora swallows hard, asking where Kairi is.

Axel says he’s sorry, and Sora’s torso is encased in ice.

“ _ ┈How, how could you fail when you know how she matters?!┈ _ ”

Everyone (and Sora) stares at Sora’s outburst, until Saix appears and chases Axel out of the scene. He put two and two together that Kairi is imprisoned by the Organization. Will they release her if he completes their damned Kingdom Hearts? Sora is given no space to think, for the invasion crisis in Hollow Bastion worsens and ends with Sora, Donald and Goofy trapped in a bottomless darkness. No way out exists until a black coat suddenly places a box for them.

Sora fails to reach him, left alone to inspect the contents: a bar of blue ice cream and a picture with a strangely nostalgic face. A light breaks through the darkness when he lifts the ice cream bar, and the object is dropped to be catched by Donald’s quick reflex. He turns to see Sora walk to the light really slowly, like he’s never seen it before. Goofy and Donald follow him out of it to see themselves in the gummiship, safe and sound. Donald shows the ice cream bar back to Sora, and he tastes it. His breath hitches, and he cries. He tells disturbed Donald and Goofy he’s okay, but he can’t stop crying.

_ This feels so familiar, yet I’m sure I’ve never had this ice cream before. _

_ I am crying, but it’s not because I feel that was Riku, hope that was Riku safe, holding on his own and approaching me. _

_ Why am I crying? _

The gummiship beeps with a new world in the distance, and Sora draws his eyes up. He says he’s good and that they should all be more concerned about the information Axel revealed. If Sora can’t stop using the keyblade, how can they stop Xemnas from using the artificial Kingdom Hearts?

_ ┈Then the hearts can just be set free┈ _

_ What? That’s ridiculous! How am I even supposed to do that? _ He must be squinting at nothing because Goofy slides in his field of vision concerned. Sora just shakes his head and pushes open the gummiship’s cockpit. No more feelings bother him until the mission in Halloween town, where he’s told the boss he defeated was a puppet searching for a heart. Sora stares at his hands with furrowed eyebrows, but horror caught in his throat. It wails he’s betrayed some vital principle, yet he’s never heard of puppets until now. Still, what happened out of ignorance of the puppet’s condition is so sad. How could it be created to a fate so cruel to always feel, incomplete? Did no one think it could feel? The scientist who created him isn’t here to fist down.

_ ┈What is the point? The deed is done┈ _

Sora grimaces and drops his hands. The gesture is noted by Santa Claus, whom by reasons not relevant to this story is at the same space and time. Sora is glad he’s real and Riku was wrong, because he happens to be there to express his sympathy for the puppet and wishing he’d found out much sooner. The red man leaves, and Sora feels a knot in his chest. He clutches it, vowing he’ll be more observant before engaging an enemy next time.

He’s glad to have that conclusion for his second visit to the land of dragons. It makes him not hit first the mysterious figure he’s been tailing and observe pretty clearly he’s sporting a familiar weapon. He bests the other, hoping it’ll impress him and makes him stay, but he waves a hand and runs for it.

_ Riku… _

_ ┈I should’ve known I actually failed to convince you _ ┈

Sora looks down. The thought is not his, but it’s kind of right. Riku clearly cares for him. The guy straight out rescued him from being trapped in darkness. He’s unhurt and exploring the worlds as he wants to.

Is that why he’s not staying, not even to say hello?

Sora swallows the thought back to the world’s palace, where his doubts are lifted when it’s revealed Riku was busy warning the world’s emperor of the heartless peril in the area. So he was busy as well helping the worlds be stable. When everything is over, he’ll get to know more, right?

Sora stares at Mulan and the General Shang, now together despite their rocky starts.

He thinks of Riku, and sheds a tear that feels his own.

He really has to get him back!

┈ _ And do it right, or then what has been lost will be for nothing _ ┈

Sora nods to himself. He must be careful with how he approaches Riku with no idea what he’s been through, and he must get one step ahead of the Organization to get to Kairi safely.

“You bet on it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the background of this entire thing, Xion is gay for Mulan and making commentary with Roxas and they don’t know it’s affecting Sora lol. Sort of way to compensante for Heart hotel not being canon. I really wanted it to be :c
> 
> My purpose was to address the hypothetical scenario of being influenced by a stranger’s feelings and how they would really affect you. I found this a perfect opportunity to contrast Xion and Sora, but still stick to the world’s mechanics of Xion being unable to be seen, even if her absence is felt. It’s what I thought KH3 was going to do but didn’t do.
> 
> I hope it came across clearly. Feel free to ask for clarifications!
> 
> 1\. kori ni tojikomete started played during this one that's why it turned gay


	3. Third Chain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some Kairi perspective! And, more hints of something else happening in the past?  
> Hope this isn't too confusing!

#  **◎ ❀ ( ☆ ) ❀ ◎**

Routine may always dictate your flow and your direction, but it can never shake you from what you’re truly missing.

She repeated this to herself as new memories slipped into her mind, working to  _ remember, remember, remember. The basketball team doesn’t play like last year. Two seats are empty and no one wants to push them out of the classroom. Riku was distancing but he would’ve still told her why she left the islands. She knows the couple at that house in the other neighborhood because they hand her , but don’t say anything else. From the vibe they have, it’s weird that they’re childless. The play island is not the same without the usual friends. _

And, something much stronger is nagging her: Her bookshelf is arranged differently, she found wrappers of an ice cream she’d never seen on the island, and when she went to bed after overworking on homework she felt so, lonely... 

She knew Tidus would tease her in trying to date him or any boy in their grade before Wakka elbowed him for not knowing traditions. And maybe it could work: she’s the poster girl of Destiny Islands that everyone likes, yet she doesn’t feel like she wants to date a boy for one-sided consolation: her heart wouldn’t be into it, she just knows so. 

There is no face for this ghost, but there is for the other, so Kairi feels more confident to ask Selphie if she remembers the other boy they used to play with as kids. Nor she nor anyone else on the island knows, not even the adult couple that she’s sure is connected. 

So then, was the person real? Or was Kairi trying to conjure a tulpa that explained why some parts of reality didn’t click? And yet, she didn’t think of asking about the other ghost. She couldn’t, for no matter what she tried, she couldn’t evoke a memory or a face, while in P.E. or a Physics lab a clear memory would naturally come to the surface. Yes, they feel like real events she supressed, but the final part won’t click into place. It’s not until she tries to speak to Selphie again that she suddenly hears a voice reach out to her. It’s so lost for help she can’t help going along with it, and as reward she gets a name.

It all clicks like a soft “oh.” Yeah, Sora and Riku have been missing for a year. What’s taking them so long?

And why does she still not know what the other ghost is?

The next day, Kairi fashioned a jumpsuit and some portable pockets with conveniences before striding off to the island’s border at sunset. “Maybe waiting isn’t enough.” But how exactly could she begin? If her memories are true, the world is, disconnected from the other worlds by darkness. She has no device to break those.

“My thoughts exactly! If you have a dream, don’t wait, act.”

#  ► ۵ ☼ ۵ ◄

With those words, Axel signs his death sentence with the Organization. Interacting with the worlds outside of Xemnas’ order is high treason. Not like he cares about it anyway. The only tie to it, Saix, is no longer the ally from a past life he used to be. He doesn’t think why, just focused on the fact his real friend is trapped in the heart of some kid who is too foolish for his own good. Axel saw Sora fall for all the words of Castle Oblivion. Axel couldn’t trust him to not fall for the Organization’s schemes and carry the heart of his only friend. Roxas had no memories when he gave himself up to awake Sora: no full picture to make a decision. So Axel would lure the keyblade wielder in some way and kill him, getting Roxas back as nobody. He’ll convince him of how rash and immature his decision was and solve a way to definitely run away from the organization. Kid deserves a real life like what Lea had.

_ In fact, why didn’t they run away long ago? _

The thought hits him when a dog’s arrival interrupts their meeting. He can’t pinpoint why, but he can’t let Sora’s childhood friend go away either. He summons dusks, trying to pressure her into coming with him willingly. The other way works.

_ No, you’ve failed at this before miserably.  _

Axel squints at the thought, watching Kairi run away through a portal out of nowhere. The dusks are left for show, not commanded to go and restrain her. Why? Does he have any feeling of morals to care for kidnapping a child? Yet, he feels he’s going to get beat if he uses his usual assasin brutality. Axel scoffs.

He’s not afraid of Sora. Who else could be mad at him?

#  **◎ ❀ ( ☆ ) ❀ ◎**

“We’re both missing someone.”

The words haunt Kairi as she sprints through the dark corridor. What does Axel know? His lie about knowing Sora was obvious, but there was no way a random stranger could know about her other problem. It was too convenient to be coincidental, yet anything can fill a gap in memories.

Kairi stops running and pants. She’d barely processed the new town she’d stepped in, only looking for a space of safe solitude. Now that she’s tired, her blink clears her eyes to the forest she’s arrived in. How did she get exactly where she wanted to be without running? As a child, Kairi usually hated moving to places too different and took weeks to adjust to a new distant place she had to frequent until she got to know the entirety of the islands and know them. This forest is nothing like them, yet the halo of sun rays and a new smell soothes her nerves. Kairi furrows her eyebrows. This is out of character.

A voice calls behind her and Kairi turns to a boy hanging to his knees after a sprint. Behind him a girl and a boy follow and ask if she’s alright. Kairi nods and says she’s just a lost.

“Nuh-huh. We saw you like, materialize in the middle of the street! You’ve got to tell us what’s going on!” The blonde proclaims only to get elbowed by the brunette girl. “Cut it off, Hayner! You don’t know what trouble she is into!” She turns to Kairi and smiles, then frowns when Pence wins her on the nice speaking: “We’ve got a private meeting spot, no ears.”  Kairi grins and agrees to follow them to the “Usual spot,” basking in the sight of the town along the way. It’s picturesque and nostalgic in a way that feels eternal, almost like the islands before they fell. Kairi would always have the play Island, but even if her friends never got lost it’s a place they’d eventually stop frequenting. Meanwhile Hayner, Pence, and Olette, whose names she learned as they bantered and spilled wild stories about spots they passed by, would grow and walk in this feeling forever.

She’s a little jealous, but she just says the city looks nice as they lead her behind some gates. The “usual spot” is dusty and messy, but hidden away enough no adult would care if the trio of friends keep frequenting it. Kairi sits down on a box with a sigh, looking up when Olette asks her name gently. She gives it, and nods when Olette asks if she feels okay to talk about what happened. Kairi sits solemnly as she tells the story from the day the raft was started. Talking about it makes her heart grow light, relieved there is no risk to have when the world secrecy has already been broken. Olette comments how exciting her story is when another dark corridor opens, and Axel comes back. This time Kairi is helpless as he drags her, leaving the kids frozen at the sight of her disappearing. She doesn’t blame them. It’s probably the first time they’ve seen something so disturbing in their life. Luckily Kairi’s backstory keeps her moving, shoes sticking to the ground as she leans heavier and heavier. Axel groans and lifts his other hand to restrain her when she takes the chance and steps on his foot. She backtracks and twists her head to all sides, trying to see an escape in this tunnel of… water? air? symbols?

“You were not going anywhere. Don’t you want to find Sora directly?” Kairi half scoffs and laughs. “What kind of idiot follows a random grown stranger? Have you never met kids?”  Axel winces for a fraction of a second and snarls, one step ahead and Kairi one step back. She swings right as soon as he goes left, and so they’re locked with their arms extended and feet shuffling in a circle.  “What the hell are you getting out of this?”

“Same thing you want, but different.” He grits through his teeth. “Your dumb friend split his heart and his body, and his body walked on and became my friend. Now your buddy is back and taken off mine.”

Kairi blinks many times, but keeps her feet planted. If he’s trying to make her feel guilty, he’s failed. “And so Sora had to stay gone? How am I connected to that nonsense if you’re not making it up?” Axel locks his jaw and straightens up with a sigh. He’s getting himself calm to deliver something and Kairi is not liking it.

“I’m saying, yes, your body can develop a self if you split your heart from it.” Kairi remember Sora’s body fading in light and feels goosebumps. “It’s what it’s called a nobody, and I am one too.. We have no hearts to feel, so we don’t even bleed.” At Kairi’s raised eyebrow, he laughs and summons a chakram. “Here, I’ll show you it’s true.” He stabs in and out through his hand, wiggling his fingers in proud mockery of the absence of blood. Kairi is pulling her hairs suppressing a scream. Axel opens his mouth when Kairi cuts him off.

"Alright alright I believe you! Just don't do that again! I don't know if this helps, but one day I heard a voice ask who I was and he said he's named Roxas. He helped me remember Sora and then didn't, call again." She tries to breathe, agitated. Axel looks unamused. "Does that do anything?" 

Axel "No. I just need Sora to be willing to listen to me, and if you introduce me it could work. I'd go myself but he keeps swinging nobodies into oblivion left and right."

_ With that attitude, I'm not surprised. _ Kairi couldn't help thinking. Even if there were other nobodies unlike this guy, she's sure Sora has fair reasons to strike back.

"Okay, I may do that," Axel's gaze perks up with surprise too fast for a guy who can't fell. Kairi glares and shakes her head slowly. "But not without a deal back. You're going to spill the beans on this person we're both missing."

Axel scoffs. “You don’t know anything about Roxas.”

Kairi grinds her teeth. She doesn't usually do that but she's angry. “What? No! I heard him once and it's not him I mean.”

“Don’t you mean Sora?” Now Axel looks genuinely confused, wincing when Kairi snaps.

“No! I don’t know. It’s just, at least I know you showed up because of some Roxas, but for me some things just don’t make sense!” She yells all of this too loud, so loud Axel glances side to side anxious. He faces her again and scratches the back of his head.

"Sorry kid, I really don't know what you're talking about." 

Kairi raised her fists, but sighs. He motions Axel to empty space and he nods, summoning a dark corridor. They walk towards it when Axel hears feet shuffle, swearing as Kairi sprints to the opposite direction and into the world that never was. He gives chase into the nightlit city until he stops dead in his tracks, frozen by the sight of berserkers and no red hair in sight. Meanwhile, Kairi is shoved into a cell and locked behind bars by a blue haired man, having no choice at the sight of his minions’ blunt weapons. No way she’d be able to run away from those.

She has a lot of time alone, prickling at the hems of her jumper and grabbing her band. Is she really just stuck here, unable to see her friends again? Was it a mistake to really try to do the search from her side? 

She sighs. Maybe she really shouldn’t do anything at all. At least nothing else is happening to her. Wherever they are, hopefully Sora and Riku are okay. 

#  ———❦♕X

Sora is getting his ass kicked right now.

A stranger his age is using TWO keyblades to knock his ass into Oblivion. Any time he fails to block proves fatal. He’s full stocked on elixirs but he feels stricken by two rages at the same time. The moment he tries to speak, he’s knocked backwards and barely not failing to roll away from a light pillar. 

All this because that Axel guy blew himself up.

Right then he didn’t think things could go that way. He had just walked in a tunnel of waters and symbol when the guy showed up, pale and dragging but still swinging at dusks that surrounded them. Though he’s strong enough to cover his side, Sora can’t help rolling to his side when he can and fending dusks off his load. He barely knows the guy, but he’s, panicking too much for it! He blinks, and sees Axel trying to extend his chakram through a tangle of white limbs. A scream in his mind sounds double:

_ ┈┈ _ _ CAST AEROGA! _ _ ┈┈ _

Sora screams and casts, right when Axel rolls his chakrams on fire. The combo airs the fire around him and then expands, killing an entire radius of nobodies. Axel whistles and thumbs up before stumbling. Sora rushes to pass him a potion, but more dusks keep coming out of nowhere. Before Sora can interject, the man rushes away and, in his own words, puts it all in one attack. He’s the first nobody to fade away for Sora’s sake and not for fighting him. Yet, he still believes he has no heart as he dies? 

A foreign cold encased around Sora’s heart, then vanished without a trace. It’s as if the interruptions evaporated in response to Axel’s death. He was getting used to suddenly seeing another side to his thoughts. Now his head space felt… empty.

That until the stranger showed up and, started trying to practically murder him. He even knocks Kingdom Key D out of his grasp and pins it out of Sora’s grasp. Still, Sora is strong. He hasn’t traversed through the available expanse of the universe twice just to be defeated before he’s able to see his friends face to face. This wish teleports the key blade back into his hand, ending the other in one final slash.

Sora stares at him in defiant anger, but when he speaks, he can’t feel anything but lost. Make a good other? Was he interjecting in his thoughts trying to gain some presence in the world? Then Sora almost lost his body… or not. He really can’t guess what would’ve happened if he lost, nor wants to think at all. No other thought disturbs him as he , but he is nagged by another matter.

The interjections were so… pensive, while the boy just attacked him and didn’t explain anything. Sora felt sure the source of those thoughts would’ve justified their actions further before attacking Sora, not leave him lost. That rage of two he felt… could deep anger really overwrite your usual actions? 

Sora pushes the thought aside. He’s here and alive, and Kairi is close. He mustn’t think but go on.

Then, hopefully, he’ll find Riku.

#  **◎ ❀ ( ☆ ) ❀ ◎**

Kairi sighs in her cell, cracking her shoulders the best she can as she stretches. That was the last stretch she could think of, even after going through the tennis team’s entire warming routine. She’d run out of little games to pass the time and it was getting... boring. 

She plopped back into bed with a sigh when a wisp of darkness hovered on the floor. She got on her elbows and held a breath with no idea of who would step out. Axel didn’t try to give chase when the blue haired man, Saix, got her. It could be anyone, but Kairi genuinely wasn’t expecting a very pretty blonde to step through.

“This way!” She whispers, and offers her hand. 

Kairi takes it and she pulls them to the corridor outside. The girl rushes her through the corridor like she knows the place. Kairi blinks at that observation and pulls her hand to tell her to stop, then walks them both between blocks on the wall that should hide them if someone walked in.

“I know we’re prison breaking, but this is too fast! Who are you and why did you save me?”

The girl puts her hands together and looks at the floor. “I’m... Naminé, and I’m a nobody.”

“A nobody?” Kairi repeats, incredulous. “But nobodies are mean and going after people! And you’re so young and gentle and, going out of the way for a stranger.”

Naminé smiles gently. “I see. Quite the compliment to give the one who just rescued you.” Kairi covers her own mouth with a gasp. “I’m so sorry… it’s just, you’re the first nice nobody I meet.” Naminé smiles sadly. “There are few, because all the sentient ones are in the Organization and instructed to be nothing at all.” Kairi perks an eyebrow. “Few? You mean there could be another nobody at this castle as young as you? And living under them?!” Kairi almost yells if it isn’t for Naminé’s wince, which brings her tone hushed again. 

“That over there. It kinda looks like a building with rooms, doesn’t it?” Kairi sprints and leaves Naminé trailing behind whispering “Wait!” She arrives and finds her guess correct, spotting a bed behind a door frame as soon as she enters the building. She scuttles to one, then the next, then taking the steps and sprinting like she knows where to look.

She’s not sure of what she’s searching when she spots a blur of color past some room. Her steps backtrack slowly, eyes lingering on colorful seashells in the middle of lilac emptiness. Slowly, she approaches the bed they lay on as if intruding. She even glances at her sides before picking a Thalassa shell so gently, brushing a thumb where the outer layer is peeling off. It’s been here for a long time, away from the refreshing licks of the sea foam…

The spell is broken when Naminé’s panting finally catches up to her. “What… what do you think you’re doing Kairi?! Do you want to get imprisoned again?” Kairi turns with the shell pressed close to her heart, eyebrows quivering. “I knew it. Another nobody as young as you and I has been living here and, growing in rooms so empty under figures so cold…”

Naminé raises her eyebrows and tilts her head, joining her hands nervously. “Did… did you meet Roxas?”

“I know of him, but I’m sure this is, someone else. His voice reached me but, it didn’t have the essence of the sea.” Kairi looks up, eyes so vibrant with hope. But  Naminé hangs her head, almost as if she was disappointed she couldn’t answer the question. “Roxas was the only kid in the organization. I know of no one else.” Kairi walks by and pats her shoulder. “It’s alright. It’s just, this hunch I got. Let’s go back.”

Before they cross paths with Saix, Naminé suddenly speaks up: “How, how did you figure out I’m not part of the organization?” Kairi merely chuckles. “Simple: you’re not wearing a black coat and you’ve been nice to me.”

Both girls are ready to try something this time, but they’re thankfully not forced to when a mysterious hooded figure shows up. It’s Naminé’s last words before going away that tell Kairi his identity. 

“Riku?”

Riku has been close this whole time?!

Before she can raise protests, she gets the ability to fight, and thus supports Riku through the wades of heartless blocking their way. She wants to find out why he appears now of all times in a different form but he keeps silence.

Kairi knows better than to break it.

He’s gone for so long her chides might not have the smug effect they once did. In fact, he looks so tired… She can’t pile other weight on him further.

It’s only when he turns right when she turns left that she stumps her foot and calls after him. “You can just tell me if I’m going in the wrong direction you know! I don’t know the place.”  Riku comically stumbles pausing, clearly a boy too young for way too long limbs. Kairi gets to his side and looks at him gravely. “You were not trying to get away, where you?”  Riku tugs at his hood. “Kairi, look at the form I’m in right now. I had to use the darkness for Sora’s safety and I’m stuck looking like the man who destroyed our home.”

Ah, it all made sense now. “So you were with him? Why would you not want to see him now?”

Riku shook his head. “I acted from the distance. Kairi, you have to understand I’m not going back after what I’ve done!”

Kairi gasps. “Riku, you can’t mean that! No matter how you’ve been affected, we miss you.” Riku clenched his fist and kept walking, not leaving Kairi behind. “And how will people believe I’m the same boy? This time, Kairi, the problems can’t be hidden.” Kairi takes a deep breath. “I know this isn’t the same as covering up for your pranks. And you can’t walk of while we don’t know if you’re safe. Sora said he’d go get you and come back!” 

Riku’s steps stop. Kairi thinks she’s got through when she hears the tiny feet squitter, and she pauses too. Riku takes two slow steps, then teleports. Kairi grunts in indignation and rushes ahead, walking like a normal human to arrive to a balcony and see Sora.

He’s real! She knew for sure but this is just, the real thing! She can’t contain her excitement to see her friends safe and sound, joining them all in one share of hands before fate decides to rip them apart.

The gesture works to clear Sora’s eyes through the hurt of the past, and beg on his knees for his friend to stay. Kairi has always seen that ressonance, knowing it’d made Riku see they love him in the past and in the present circumstances. It’s interesting, really, how the turns of events seem to reflect Riku’s acceptance that he was wanted back ok the islands, and one incident then gives him his real body back. Though her amateur swings are useless now, Kairi is content to see her friends fight on each other’s back and push and laugh.

She almost feels back on the play island.

“You, telling Sora’s actions to convince me to stay...” This breaks the spell and makes Kairi glance around the room with magenta light tombstones. She raises an eyebrow and Riku continues: “I felt a sense of dejá vu.” 

Kairi gasped for a second, then closed her mouth. She didn’t comment anything as they pressed on and fought their way back home. The joy of returning has her too giddy, not even flinching when the ghosts of Naminé and Roxas appeared. So, she is her nobody, huh? And they are some kind of safe within them. Kairi could later think about the sad implications of all that. First, everyone needed to go through the portal Naminé created with the last of her presence. Kairi passes when only her friends are left to go, but regrets it inmediately as she feels the darkness shift and vanish with her as she turns with a warning. Next second, she’s staring at the sunshine of destiny island and plopping down on the soft sand that’s coaxed kids into naps for the last 15 years. This time, Kairi’s eyes crinkle.

“I said I wouldn’t return to the play island without them.”

She doesn’t cry, but the rat and Donald and Goofy still try to cheer her up with stories of her friends’ experience and how eaxctly they got lost. Mickey swears they’ll get back through the darkness portal as they recover, but Kairi has learned better by now. She says they should have more faith, wait a day, because if they make it out of the darkness they should land here. 

Kairi stretches her arms and stares to the horizon, belief in her own words keeping her rooted. When they get here (and she knows they will), she’ll catch up on Sora’s fun adventures of this round and have a long talk with Riku to make him understand friends should stick to each other. And then, what will she do for herself? She got to barely cross two worlds on her own and get no answers on the other trouble. She pushed it to the back of her mind when she found her friends, but now that the waves of the sea were the only noise, their echo resounded in the remaining holes in her mind and her personal space.

Her eyes ride the wave, slowing as it reaches the sand and draws itself back into blue and ripples that hide everything it has below. She knows now beyond the sea is the end of the world and endless darkness. Could the movement actually come from the darkness, and both the fish and the trinkets they’ve lost playing as kids be moving between? And when they move there, they’re forgotten by the light. Her father insisted to her once she should’ve been more careful with a hairclip at the beach, but baby Kairi confidently said she never wore hair clips. It’s easy to forget things forever, but people…

People link to your heart and take their piece with them.

Kairi’s eyes crinkle when a gloved hand stops her . She shivers, the sea licking her ankles. How did she get this far? Donald quacks to look up to the sky, and Kairi retreats back to land as she sees two shooting stars descend. A song of bliss could fill the air as the lost sons of that world return world, Kairi doing her duty to receive them with a smile and a wave over to a certain palm tree. Donald, Goofy and the rat tell them to rest and to use an excuse spell they hand them to keep the world order, and leave them to their privacy on board of the gummiship. Sora says he needs time to stroll back through the island he loves, so Kairi says she’ll get treats at the storage shed. She actually does to get away from the strange sensation she got through the whole journey back: Sora is wandering and Riku is closed off. How is she supposed to approach them now? Can she trust them with what’s going on with her? 

The question can’t kick because a bottle hits the shore, and she sees a familiar seal on it. She reluctantly takes it since it’s been barely 10 minutes. She wonders what they’ll think of her holding them back from another adventure, and she kicks off in a sprint. She arrives panting only to be disappointed to see her suspicions confirmed, and her friends not bothered at all. Riku says he’ll grab the spell and get supplies, and before she can blink, Sora yawns and takes a nap, exhausted.

Kairi decides that she’s tired too, since her own search got nowhere.

It’s sad to think one ghost still lives in her

and it doesn’t have a name

will her question ever be answered someday?


	4. Cross of Chains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something not canon, so it isn't part of the main fic.  
> Just like someone else to certain Organization, eh?
> 
> Or
> 
> Sora and Kairi talk about the ghost
> 
> Feel free to skip this sort of, epilogue since it isn't KH2 adjacent

#  \---❦♕ **☆**

It isn't a surprise to dream of being in the same beach. He can keep looking at the place he'd lost in the storm while his body rested. The time he spent with Riku at the Dark Realm did help his bones, but the warmth of the sun had knocked the rest of his agitation back to the surface.

Well, if he needs to nap he needs to nap! In his dream, Sora gets up and yawns. He walks up to a basket with rice balls and eats one, delighted he can taste good food even in his dreams. Maybe he should convince Riku to stall their departure a little longer and go cook some? He's bad at assembling but can tell when it's al dente with scary precision. The real world can wait. For now he's gonna grab another one.

"I knew you'd like it this much!"

Sora falls over, recovering on his elbows to see Kairi sitting next to him with expectant. Weird, she's always leaning while standing up. He tries to lean his head confused, but giggles instead. Giggle?!

" _ ┈ _ Rice isn't the winner until you show me pasta balls or avena balls _ ┈ _ " It's his voice saying it, but the rhythm of his voice is alien. And most of all, it's not what he wants to say!

" **▐ ▀ ▄ ▒▒ ¨** I swear, you have the grossest ideas!" Kairi tosses him some sand while laughing and almost killing the rest of the food. Good thing Sora's hand is fast, though he can't exactly chew more right now. Kairi's laughter even sounds different. It's... brighter, with a bit of a shake he's never heard before. It sounds like her, more natural than loose, but Sora can't trust a dream to tell him real facts about a friend he hasn't seen in, a couple weeks? 

But it's been a year.

Is his mind making up for lost time? 

Sora licks a rice crumb at his mouth corner, then mentally curses expecting Kairi chiding him for not using a napkin. Instead, her smile widdens, and she shifts from sitting to lying on the ground, head in her hands and hair giving a little shadow to her eyes. They look away, and Sora shakes a little trying to run for it. But his body won't move!  He feels intensely in every way, even with physical contact. He feels too much and he doesn't like it. Right now he doesn't like the stare and how much expectancy is into it. He scrambles to say something when Kairi talks first.

"Why did you come see my tennis game but not come say hi?"

Sora blinks. Since when does she play tennis? She always preferred free time to come and play here on the islands. Sora's mouth opens alone again, but it's all static to his ears. Kairi insists he needs to loosen up and meet her friends, but Sora's head shakes and more static rings in his ears. Kairi's head leans in her hands a little sadly, but she sighs in agreement. "I understand. I'm just pushing my luck."

Sora wants to yank his hair and yell himself awake. The static grated his ears, and he can't understand why Kairi would act this way! This isn't how she knows her! Why is he being forced to see this? And first perspective, worst of all. He wants to trash further in his mental (?) cage until he stops his thoughts in his tracks. A random dream shouldn't get him so worked up, except it felt exceptionally real in textures, lighting, sensation of his skin and Kairi's presence.

Like a really messed up sort of video you can jump in someone's skin to.

With all this blubbering, he misses on his body saying something next and barely catches Kairi's next words: "Still, I wish you got assigned here everyday."

Sora's body leans and he feels an eyebrow rise. “ _ ┈ _ What, you want that badly to see me? _ ┈ _ ” Kairi snorts. “Just kidding!" Sora's body draws back in confusion. " _ ┈ _ Okay, I believe you, but I don't get the point of saying something you don't truly mean _ ┈ _ " Kairi's smile melts to a line and she considers it. "Yeah, I guess it's a bit weird, though I see Riku tease people like that all the time." 

Now finding himself talking about Riku made Sora feel out of it, even more when his mouth says " _ ┈ _ Oh, the tall brooding one _ ┈ _ ” He frowns inside. He just has a lot to deal with! Who does this stranger think they are?! 

“If you find him buried in dark clouds, I’ll give you extra rice balls.” 

Sora has his mental jaw agape, while Kairi and his mouth grin and cackle on Kairi's remark. Kairi then points to him like she's seen a new kitten. "Hey! I'm seeing it! You laughed!"

" _ ┈ _ I did? _ ┈ _ " Sora's hand grazes his cheek while Kairi flutters around him excited. How... how is a laugh something to freak out over? Who can be so sad or, still that they never get the urge? Sora feels cold at the idea, but he hears himself stand up colloquially and say " _ ┈ _ It's just a laugh _ ┈ _ " with a smile. His wrists roll, his mouth says the weirdest apologies and excuses himself for tomorrow. Kairi stretches one hand, voice too silent as she whispers she doesn’t mind. Sora senses it, but his body already slipped out... through a dark corridor. 

_What_. Who leaves someone hanging like that?! After getting a nice snack and talking a nice conversation, the least you can say is bye! He's angry until replaying the interaction and registering the words his mouth said before parting:

" _ ┈ _ I'm sorry I have no report today. I'll have it someday _ ┈ _ "

_ What,  _ **_the hell,_ ** **D O E S T H A T M E A N**

Sora's arms soar this time as he yells, ruffling his own hair only to find... there is no hair there, but a hood. He looks at his hands, and they're gloved in black. One brushes away some of the darkness, and Sora sees reflected a black coat

with no face

#  **◎ ❀ ( ☆ ) ❀ ◎**

Kairi jerks up awake and ready to kill something. She was having the greatest of naps and someone had to yell and ruin it. She turns around annoyed, only to kick off on her feet and backstep so fast she almost trips as Sora comes yelling at her, then stops. 

"I, can't sleep right now!"

Kairi quirks an eyebrow. "If you yelled awake because you remembered the test, it's fine. You deserve to rest Sora." He doesn't calm down one bit, rubbing his face and sweating a little. Stars, did he see the bunny skeleton with the torso of a paopu tree that he saw in an horror movie in fifth grade?

"Sora, Sora!" His gaze jerks back in focus. Oh relief. "Sora it's fine, it's just a dream. You're safe and sound here on the islands." Sora shakes one hand up going "No no no no, you don't know! You were in it acting all different and I wasn't like myself!"

K . airi's tone drops an octave, unamused. "Is this your first time having a dream in another character's body?" Sora blinks. "Character?" Kairi puts a hand on her hip. "Well, that's what I call it. When I'm seeing from my own two eyes but my limbs and actions have nothing to do with what I do: following a story like everything else. That's how dreams are at times." Sora bows his head, still confidant of his words to Kairi's annoyance. "Yeah but, it felt so vivid and livid, almost like I was remembering something." Kairi starts to tone him down but can't continue:

"Sora, you big baby, freaking out over dreams at this stage in life-"

_ " _ _ ┈ _ _ Kairi, that's enough _ _ ┈ _ _ " _

Both gasp and look at each other confused. Sora is covering his mouth, Kairi can't believe his ears. Sora draws his hand apart with a frown. "I, I didn't mean that."

"No you're right. I kept, trying to ease you but I was not listening to you."

Both sit down, Kairi raising her hand and Sora nodding, then giving two reassuring pats ln his shoulder. "You can tell me the dream if it helps you feel better. It matters a lot to you, so I'll listen."

As Sora talks about a her that laughs mirtle, leans in expectation of another's joy and sits on the sand, Kairi feels her heart crushing with nostalgia, like hearing a recollection of something you lost except she never had it. That feeling and her dream self's remark on sports doesn't make sense. She is practicing tennis, but it must've started because the boys went away and she needed distraction. Kairi squints further and further at Sora until he says the laugh wasn't a big deal, and something in her heart sparks for a second. She asks him to describe the laugh, and Sora looks around, taking his time to land on the words needed. He looks at the palm tree and snaps his fingers. "Like brushing leaves, nicely light but almost like it's not there." Kairi can hear the laugh so clearly with the visual picture

she cries.

"Woah! Kairi, what brought this on?" Sora is lost on what to do, watching Kairi grab her frame and shiver. 

"I don't know! I keep feeling drawn to places I've never seen and observing changes I can't explain and feeling, things that should have a root in somebody but know nobody!" 

Sora's eyebrows perk at the last word.

"Do you, hear thoughts that aren't yours and you can just ignore, but see everythig so different it doesn't feel ike you?" Kairi shakes her head before hanging it a little. "Nor the feelings nor the me in your dreams match the person you're seeing." Kairi's voice comes out tired, dropped an octave he'd never heard. He squirms feeling salt in his eyes.

"Sora, why are you crying?"

"I, I don't know!" He jumps to his feet and starts pacing. "I don't, tear up over things like this. It's just a dream but it's, getting me so mad I can't see if someone is affecting me or not!"

Kairi rushes to her feet at last shout, patting his shoulder lightly and drawing back her hand. "Hey hey, it's ok. You're still you Sora, specially since you're able to tell so well it isn't like you..." Her fist supports her chin. Sora looks at the contrast with her tear tracks. Didn't she go over that emotion a little bit too fast? And switched to ease him. He's opening hs mouth when Kairi snaps her eyes back and he jumps.

"I never though you could be connected to it!"

"It? what is -it?-"

"I don't know! Something or, someone. We've learned people can exist in many ways lately." Kairi explains in her first month anxious over her friends, everyday is clear until a month when it gets all foggy. It stopped 8 days before she started to remember Sora. Sora knits his eyebrows together. Did something happen to Roxas within those days? He's the person residing in his heart, but the thoughts and person in the dream felt nothing like him. Sora's train pulls over when he sees Kairi stare at the sand. There he is ignoring her again, so he breathes to gentle his tone and asks: "What do you feel now?" Kairi grabs her own wrist, rubbing with one thumb. "That I miss someone. I just can't see, who." Kairi hangs her head a little, embarrassed to think of how badly. 

“Couldn’t it just be Naminé?” Sora asks, sighing as soon as Kairi mouths no. “I was with her when, I felt a pull to inspect a building in the world of nobodies. I think it must’ve been someone connected to Organization XIII, but I don’t know enough about nobodies to confirm.” Sora tenses up remembering his dream, but grips his nerves before saying he saw himself in the black coat. “The weird thing is, I’m sure Roxas was the only child nobody in the Organization. I just have the gut feeling because, Naminé would’ve mentioned someone else connected to my awakening, wouldn’t she?” Kairi nods and sighs, but jerks her head back up almost instantly. “What if Naminé's restoring had other consequences she couldn’t imagine, being the first with the powers she had?” 

Sora nudges his chin and then gets a lighbulb lit on his head. "What if we ask her? Can you try?" Kairi chuckles a little, making Sora pout. “And can you contact Roxas and ask him your theory? I imagine not either.” Sora merely shrugs. “Didn’t hurt to try.”

Kairi chuckles and parts her gaze, which gets lost in the horizon. “It’s strange. We know the sky and sea part at some point. You can’t clearly distinguish the edge, but you know it exists. The horizon is a concept, but it has a name. This ghost in my heart does not, and only exists the few moments we can see it’s existence.“

“You're right...” Whispers Sora. Something about the solemnity of those words is contagious. “It’s like Naminé and Roxas: they had lives of their own and, now it's just,” Sora locks his hands into fists and releases them, ”It's so unfair...”

Kairi nods her head in agreement, “It can’t be left as It is, but we have no idea how to free them. Isn’t this something the King should be able to investigate?” Sora shrugs. “I don’t know if I’ll see him before or after my exam.” He sees Kairi’s face falters and sputters. “But I’ll rush as soon as I’m done and ask King Mickey, and Yen Sid if I see him again! When I tag with Riku we’ll keep an eye out, okay?” Kairi laughs. “Yeah, the world depends on you for anything to get done.” The bitterness can’t be masked this time.

“You did enough Kairi, you did more than you,” he stammer, “had to.” The word "could" almost escaped him. It's not a matter of capability but the randomness of the keyblade's selection of a champion. 

She really couldn't follow them.

“Don't worry Kairi, we'll be back before you know it.”

Kairi points to his pocket. “I know. The charm worked the first time. You and Riku take care of each other, okay?"

As if on cue, Riku arrives with all supplies ready. Sora rushes to his side to see what he’s prepared. Kairi chuckles to herself, wondering how much happened between that closed Dark Corridor and their drop back to the islands. When they’re all in the boat, she doesn’t ask though. She just rows them all to the main island. Just hearing them speculate about the “test” is enough. 

When they reach the main island, they make a bet on who will get in worse trouble and split. Kairi finds her home empty with her father still at work, so she comes back to their meeting ground shortly. Sora is back first, rubbing his reddened cheeks and buffing he’s grounded for a year after he comes back. Riku arrives with steps too soft, too measured when he stops under Sora and Kairi’s surprised eyes. He waves a hand off, saying he’s just obliged to bring souveniers. Sora sighs in relief, saying they all should stay one night before parting the next day. They all wave and split off again, but Kairi’s eyes stay fixed on Riku’s lack of pride. Something happened at his place, but he’s not ready to talk about it, and they shouldn’t press. She calls his name for a second, asks him to “please sleep all you can” and leaves. 

This time she gets home she finds her father, who very sternly orders her to text before dissapearing to practice at the tennis court. Kairi agrees and goes to bed, not sure if the world order needs to be broken to her father too. She’s wrapped in a blanket and closing her eyes when her own palm searches the empty side of her bed, looking for something that isn’t there. Kairi sighs and lies facedown, crossing her arms under her torso. A shiver pierces them, and she presses her eyes shut while begging herself to sleep through this. Eventually she rises on her elbows and stares at the window, expecting a star in the night sky to tingle or fall in the depths of the sea. Or maybe she’s expecting one to rise from it, but even if it did she’d be too distant to help it out of the water. And then, who would find the star? Would it be safe? Kairi’s eyelids finally weight and drop along with her head. 

She feels wind and she jerks awake, finding her feet on a rock path with a thin layer on water. Around her there’s foliage hiding warm lights of fires, voices and shapes of people conversing amicably. A sigh leaves her and she crosses her eyes. She’s done this already: pass huge leafs and stems to find more empty paths at the other side. She just walks ahead, tired of this, when a small shard of glass hanging from the ceiling suddenly moves towards her without any wind. Kairi turns, seeing it glow into a ball of very weak light. She approaches hesitantly, then draws a hand up. She gasps when her finger graze it. _ It’s warm land pulsing.  _

“Say, are you lonely in here? It must be hard to be stuck out of sight."

The glow merely dims, moving away a little. Kairi steps closer and takes it in both hands. It tries to hide in them, drawing a giggle out of her. Kairi sees a cable is still connected to the light. She tilts her head to see it connect higher to some point in the sky, hidden by clouds. She nudges the glow with one finger and it shines a little more. Kairi smiles. “Do you have to stay connected to the sky, or can I take you with me?” The glow shrinks and concentrates in its center, and the cable lightens up almost completely in LED light, but the illumination in the circuit doesn’t reach the clouds. It all dies down, and the glow grows back in size but is too still. Soft thumbs prompt it to glow warmly again.

“It’s okay. I can make you company while you find back your connection- whoa wait!” The glow dives out of her hands, then hovers in circles out of her reach as far as the cable allows it. Kairi laughs herself rough chasing it and laughing every time she manages to catch it to let it go again. The glow is more of a violet star the more she blinks. It reaches a height where it blinds her, pressing her eyelids close with tears and then opening them to the sun rise crawling in her room. She yawns and stretches, feeling her joints light after a eternity of stiffness and a chill still lasting, but not this time.

It’s the first night she’s managed to sleep well. Maybe, whatever that’s lost will be found after all. That missing link is real,

And someday, it’ll be reconnected to all they grazed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! As I've said, this chapter is a pilot for another big thing I'm planning to write. In fact, this fic is part 2 of that series. It's an AU of Days where x and y happens. I even put a fragment of that work in here. Still, I aimed to keep it subtle and not too intrusive to the eyes of, anyone who doesn't know the au, and because a KH2 that insinuated Xion's existence would be unable to give the answer until Days released.  
> Still, stories need to leave hanging threads in a way that's satisfying. Criticism on that front is welcome!
> 
> If you're interested in what it is, feel free to ask in the comments! I don't know if I'll start writing it in June or next year depending how well college wraps up. Hopefully earlier, because I want to share it!
> 
> Writing this was a good warmup to the flow of KH and to future plans. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did! See ya!


End file.
